“I don’t consider F1 a sport anymore”

The Renault team and the Spanish media are up in arms about Fernando Alonso’s controversial qualifying penalty which has relegated him from fifth on the grid to tenth. The Renault driver was ruled to have impended Felipe Massa’s Ferrari.

Alonso, unsurprisingly, was unhesitant in his condemnation of the stewards, saying in a press conference this morning, “I don’t consider F1 anymore a sport.”

FIA President Max Mosley, equally unsurprisingly, supported the stewards’ decision. But he also strongly suggested that the rules would be changed for next year – a clear indication that he feels the rule used against Alonso is unsatisfactory:

What we are thinking very seriously about is to say next season that we will only look at these questions only if there is evidence of deliberate impeding – or in other words, intent.

And of course the Spanish media are apoplectic. Marca called the decision part of a ‘dirty war’ against their countryman. Spanish readers can sample some of the vitriol below…